Copyright and Fair Use for Educators

Materials to help you deal with that pesky issue of Copyright and Fair use as an instructor.


Copyright and Fair Use Overviews


Copyright is a type of intellectual property which grants the creator of an original work of authorship exclusive rights to control its distribution for a certain time period, after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright

Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Videos
Copyright 101 for Teachers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzlry1c76nc&feature=related


KOCE PBS broadcast on YouTube presents and overview of Copyright for Educators http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-ifoHp6Y_A


Additional Resources

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Helpful Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines and Best Practices



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Helpful Copyright and Fair Use Checklists


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How do I attribute a photo


In order to attribute a photo you found on the web properly, you need to provide all of the information necessary to give credit to the creator of the photo and the source from where you downloaded or copied the photo. There is an excellent how-to article on wikiHow which walks through detailed steps. See the link below


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How do I license my work


Creative Commons is a great resource for licensing your work and making sure it gets used the way you intend. They have a nice little article on how to license your content using Creative Commons. Take a look and start sharing your work with the world.

When you go through the "License your work" wizard on CreativeCommons.org you can download and or embed a licence badge like this one based on how you create your own license. It is really neat so give it a try!
somerights20.png
Example of CC License badge



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How do I find work in the public domain?


One of the best resources on the web for finding content in the public domain is called The Internet Archive. There are literally millions of artifacts waiting for you to discover and use in your class or student project. Another great resource is Creative Commons where you can search for all types of resources available and licensed for you to use. You can even do a Google advanced search filtering resources based on Creative Commons license types.


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The TEACH Act

Are you nervous about using materials you used to use in a face to face class in the online classroom? Copyright law used to leave the online classroom on its own in terms of fair use protection until the TEACH Act came along in 2002. Take a look at this great resource which explains the ins and outs of the TEACH Act including a checklist for instructors to use to aid the navigation of the dynamic waters of copyright law and fair use.

The Teach Act (from the University of Texas)
Checklist for faculty (from the University of Texas)


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